An additional $500,000 be awarded to Kindle Communities for the supportive housing project at 10 Shelldale Crescent from the Affordable Housing Reserve (#119) That to the…

3:28it's back to us. So over to you Colleen, thank you very much. Good evening everyone. Thanks for

3:38being here. I want to start by thanking everyone to our clerk staff who worked quickly to pull

3:45this meeting together for us and for the staff who helped prepare this report and recommendation

3:50to the community stakeholders who came together quickly to work through this recommendation

3:54with us and finally to you as members of council for agreeing to this special meeting.

3:59As I think you all know from the conversation in July this was an extremely time sensitive issue

4:05and a need in our community but as we said at that time as staff we didn't feel we had enough

4:10information to provide you with a recommendation at that July meeting which we felt like we wanted

4:16to be able to do which was to bring you a staff report and a recommendation. So holding this

4:20special council meeting this evening gave us time to meet with those community stakeholders,

4:24evaluate the various options and then bring you that recommendation that's before you tonight

4:29in the form of our staff report. And as I said one of those main reasons that we weren't able to

4:34provide you with that recommendation at the July meeting is we hadn't had the opportunity yet to

4:38meet with the reps from the three organizations and there are three sort of stakeholder organizations

4:43who we met with Kindle communities as well as reps from both the United Way and the Gwellf

4:48Community Foundation who represent the Home for Good campaign. So since that council meeting in

4:53July we moved quickly and we had meetings with those three organizations. They are fully in

4:58support of the recommendations that are included in the staff report this evening. They also had

5:03the opportunity to review this report and provide feedback which we incorporated into the report.

5:08So the staff recommendation before you is that an additional $500,000 from the city,

5:13from the Affordable Housing Reserve be funded to the Kindle communities project and then the

5:18Home for Good campaign has committed to make up the balance of the $270,000 to address the full

5:25$770,000 shortfall that Kindle communities was facing here in August. So there's a number of

5:31recommendations reasons for this recommendation. I know what the last meeting that had been discussed

5:37about possibly providing funding again to the Home for Good campaign like was done a year ago,

5:43but that requires that matching dollars be raised by a certain deadline and in conversations with

5:47the partner organizations there was a concern that that could actually cause more instability for

5:52Kindle if there was a risk that if the matching dollars weren't raised that money would have to

5:57be repaid to the city and so that was a real concern and so the recommendation is that the

6:02money be flowed straight to Kindle communities and I just want to emphasize that that isn't in

6:06any way shape or form a comment on the Home for Good campaign simply a response to the very,

6:11very tight timeline that we were faced with with this ask and to make sure that the Kindle communities

6:17project at Shell Del Crescent remains viable because of those funding deadlines that were in

6:22place in August. From a process point of view staff felt most comfortable funding Kindle directly

6:29because Kindle completed the full RFP process that is as I think was mentioned in July our normal

6:35process is that we issue an RFP and organizations interested have to supply a full business plan

6:42and submit an application. Kindle has already done that that's been fully vetted staff both at the

6:46county of Wellington at the city had the opportunity to review that RFP and the business plan so this

6:52is simply just a change in the total grant amount it will be if approved tonight simply added as an

6:58addendum to their existing signed contribution agreement that they have with the city. This is

7:03also similar to what was done with St. Joe's previously although that was prior to this RFP

7:08process being in place but when St. Joe's also had some challenges with funding from other sources

7:13council approved a second sort of round of grant funding to St. Joe's so this would mirror that

7:18process but it certainly from a staff point of view we feel confident that Kindle has met the

7:25sort of obligations under the RFP process with their initial submission which we had the opportunity

7:29to vet and that recommendation had originally come to council. It also expedites the funding to

7:34Kindle because it does allow us to provide them with that funding this week if the motion were

7:38to pass so as you know from the July meeting there is a commitment to the Canadian Mortgage

7:42and Housing Corporation of August 15th. I know today is August the 16th we were able to work with

7:48CMHC because the agenda was published and they knew this meeting was coming they were comfortable

7:53with that little bit of leeway on the date and the reason why we asked for that leeway is we

7:59wanted this report to go out on the regular agenda give the public the normal amount of time to

8:04review the staff report so we worked with Kindle and CMHC to make sure that that deadline we had a

8:10little bit of wiggle room but a decision does need to be made tonight in terms of Kindle

8:16honoring that commitment through CMHC and so lastly I just want to reiterate that the Home for

8:22Good campaign has committed to covering the remaining $270,000 as a show of their continued

8:29commitment to the Kindle project and also to demonstrate that campaign stability. I also

8:33want to reiterate the city's support for the Home for Good campaign there's still a lot of work to

8:37be done to raise funds that are necessary to address systemic issues of homelessness in our

8:41community and we just didn't want these conversations to destabilize any of those fundraising efforts

8:47that need to continue moving forward so as I said the recommendation before you is that the $500,000

8:54be funded directly to Kindle that amount was chosen because that is the amount that was put

8:59into the affordable housing reserve as part of the 2023 budget so it would simply spend the amount

9:05that council has already designated into the fund this year in working with the county we confirmed

9:11that we are not aware of any other pending applications or organizations who were looking

9:16to apply in 2023 so what it would mean is that we wouldn't be issuing a further RFP until a later

9:22date sometime after the approval of the 2024 and our multi-year budget to determine if further funds

9:29are put into that affordable housing reserve so with that staff are obviously available here to

9:34answer any questions again I want to reiterate my thanks to Ms. Dana Evans and Ms. Tara Baker in

9:40particular who helped to turn this around as well as to our clerk staff who enabled us to turn

9:44around this really important meeting under a short timeline to address a significant need within our

9:50community. All right, ditto Colleen so thank you so much for your work and the thanks that you said

9:59there and that's good kind of summary of what the what the report states so thank you very much

10:07we do have a couple of delegations so I'll just jump to them in case there's any questions afterwards

10:12if there is any but we have a couple of delegations so I'm going to go to them and I think our first

10:18one's joining us by video and that's Morgan Danny is Morgan available for us hi mr. Mayor sorry for

10:26the interruption Morgan Danny has not been able to join the meeting at this point so we should go to

10:31the second delegate if Morgan Danny is able to join the meeting I'll let you know and we can cue

10:37up that delegation okay then by our audio I was told is Susan Watson and so Susan if you can hear

10:45me you can go right ahead as usual and I will just start the clock for you and you have no more

10:51than five minutes I want to interrupt and you can have your say as well welcome and the floor is yours

10:59can you hear me may I got three yeah you're coming through fine great let me just turn

11:06my own volume here thank you mayor got three and members of well city council I appreciate that this

11:16meeting is taking place I had hoped that we were going to see an end to gotcha politics where things

11:24were introduced at the last minute when people didn't have a chance to review the files or

11:29delegates didn't have a chance to register so I appreciate that this matter was deferred

11:35and that the process was normalized more when this happened in the last term of council it was

11:43quite upsetting to me that some people some counselors who voted against a contribution

11:50for affordable housing were accused on social media of not being in support of affordable housing

11:57because they had concerns around process and due diligence and and I don't want to see that happen

12:03anymore and it was especially egregious with councillor June Hoffland who was one of the founders

12:09of the of the anti-poverty task force so thank you for having this meeting this evening thank you for

12:15a commitment to good process and due diligence and I know that everyone who was elected

12:21to this term of well city council has a commitment to affordable and supportive housing so I

12:30I'd like to provide some further context to the request that's being made to you so providing

12:36an additional 500 000 to Kindle communities for supportive housing will work out to a total city

12:42contribution of 56 000 per unit for 32 units so let's stack that up against them the public money

12:51that citizens will be contributing to what Merritt style called luxury sprawl under bill 23

12:59so if development fees are completely waived for certain housing we could be sub subsidizing

13:05individual detached homes to the tune of 85 000 each so we could be giving one detached house

13:1385 000 whereas Kindle we're just looking at 56 000 per unit so under bill 23 for a one-bedroom

13:20unit the public subsidy could be 38 000 a bigger part in you're not coming through clearly

13:32I'm not coming through clearly

13:40yeah the reason why was because council are all unmuted for some reason but now he's found

13:44a button so that that's helpful I stopped your clock and I'll start it when you start back up okay

13:52okay so again I'm stacking it up against what would what you will be paying or what citizens

14:02will be paying under bill um under bill 23 so the catch is that a one-bedroom unit under bill 23

14:11could be a 500 000 condo and to afford a 450 000 mortgage someone would need a combined family income

14:21of around a hundred and thirty five thousand dollars a year the median household income and wealth is

14:2893 000 so people won't even qualify for the bill 23 subsidy even if they rank among the richest

14:3750 percent of wellfights the projected shortfall under bill 23 will be to be made up from taxes and

14:45water and wastewater fees will be 227 million dollars over 10 years which means that the city

14:54will be handing over an annual housing subsidy of 22.7 million dollars a year again to the richest

15:04wellfights and maybe the buyers won't even be wellfights maybe they will be one of the predatory

15:09corporations which are now buying up housing stock to add to their rental portfolios and charge

15:14exorbitant rents really this situation is completely perverse you are having an entire council meeting

15:23appropriately to debate a 500 000 tax contribution but we are going to be handing over 22.7 million

15:33dollars of public public money as housing subsidies to the wealthy with no debate so in this context

15:42absolutely you should be funding the kindle project but the subsidy you should be saying no to is

15:49public money for the wealthy we need to have a public debate about that 22.7 million annual housing

15:58subsidy further looking at this file holistically there are a number of other important things

16:04you as council need to consider as you are all likely aware 90 cardin street has been sold an

16:11eviction of tenants is underway 90 cardin has 50 apartments that house many people on Ontario

16:18works or od sp so despite the affordable housing projects underway in Guelph you are barely moving

16:25the needle perhaps you have taken two steps forward but 90 cardin is a big step back the city

16:32or the county should have bought 90 cardin i can't imagine it would have been more than the 22.7

16:39million annual gift we will soon be giving to developers and wealthy home buyers the people

16:46from 90 cardin will need somewhere to live winter is coming what i'm gonna ask you to find there

16:53Susan i'm so sorry it's i've given you an extra 25 seconds so i've had to had to stop you there i'm

16:59sorry but thank you for for joining us and let me just see if there's a follow-up question by anyone

17:09it does not again forgive me i just have to scroll through my screen here note there's no

17:17questions so thank you very much for joining us thank you bye bye all right bye bye and to you

17:24dylan is there is morgan dandy available now or no not at this point mr mayor i will advise during

17:34debate if morgan dandy does join but at this point she's not available okay no problem all

17:41right well i'll bring it back to us and to to move it into council i was told prior that

17:52it's an important project in ward three and i was told that councillor richardson and alt were

18:00happy to to move the the recommendations provided to us from staff so i'm not hearing them jump all

18:09over me for saying that so i think i think we're good so thank you moved and seconded by richardson

18:15and alt and i guess other than the report which to me is pretty clear and the presentation from

18:22staff which is pretty clear are there anything is there any further questions that need to be

18:27asked about this recommendation and again please forgive me i'm just having to scroll quite a bit

18:33here okay no i don't see any i believe i don't see any good okay all right and i have no questions

18:42so now i'll move to does anyone feel like they need to have any comments before i call the vote

18:49and i don't so far see anybody i see one or or and gypsin yep or or and gypsin go ahead

19:03councillor work thank you very much margothry i just wanted to thank staff

19:09who moved really quickly after the referral and and who worked with the proponents to come to a

19:14solution absolutely everybody wanted to see people housed by fall and so this is exciting

19:20and the only other comment i would make is that it'll be really important for the community

19:26and and all of our networks to mobilize to continue to support the home for good campaign

19:31so that these three permanent supportive housing units can be supported well into the future

19:37yeah thank you ditto to that and councillor gypsin i think yep yep go ahead thank you

19:45through mr mayor so again thanks to everyone i think everyone's been thanked here except for

19:49yourself mr mayor thank you very much for bringing this forward you are listening you brought forward

19:54in an urgent way and we got to a good resolution with only a minimal pause and i think that that's

20:00credit to yourself and to staff and for council for rallying around this issue so i'm happy to see

20:04moving forward okay great well thank you and so with that i'm just again scrolling back and forth

20:13here to make sure nobody else nope all right well thank you then my only comment is to say thank you

20:21to everybody involved uh to getting to yes as councillor richardson said a few days ago getting

20:27to yes on this so thank you and um and thank you very much to staff for clarifying and validating

20:36that there was an urgency to this issue um that that that uh that means a lot to have that validated

20:43so thank you uh with that i will again i forgive me as i scroll but i'll call the vote here is there

20:50anyone against sorry everybody just take some minute for the screen to go okay that's nobody

21:05that's unanimous thank you very much uh to the clerks uh you're good so far with that

21:12yep all right unanimous vote in favor thank you yeah all right and with that um i will go to

21:20councillor downer just to move the bylaws for tonight then please move that the bylaws number